In numbers

At first Joshua Gough thought he had pulled a muscle in his back. He took a few days' break from his warehouse job, popped some painkillers and thought that was that.

Within a week, he went from losing feeling in his toes to complete paralysis from the hips down. Doctors found a pus-filled abscess on his spinal cord and removed it but he still can't stand, let alone walk.

Throughout the highs and lows of intensive rehabilitation at Prince of Wales Private Hospital in Randwick, what has reminded him of the simple joys of walking is virtual reality (VR) therapy.

"When I first saw the VR headset I was a bit edgy because I didn't understand it, I had only heard about PlayStation VR," Mr Gough, 27, from Fairfield, said.

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"I enjoyed it, it cleared my head. We were walking on a trail and there was this river with crystal clear water. I looked up and saw the sky, I looked down and saw my feet."

Prince of Wales Hospital is trialling VR therapy this month to see whether there are benefits for patients, especially those who have to stay in hospital for a long time, such as Mr Gough.

A patient at Prince of Wales uses a VR headset that allows him to visit El Camino.Credit:Steven Siewert

What's extra special is the 360 degree VR footage was captured by a 12-strong group of Prince of Wales Hospital supporters who walked the 112-kilometre El Camino trail in Spain in May and raised more than $60,000 in donations.

VR therapy, which involves a headset that allows the user to immerse themselves in a different environment, has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, alleviate pain and even help patients recover from brain injury.

Twelve headsets are available to patients in five wards – those undergoing dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation treatment, rehab or physio.

The VR footage was taken in May by a team who trekked the El Camino in Spain to raise funds.Credit:Steven Siewert

Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation chief executive Leanne Zalapa, who was part of the team, said the headsets provided a way for patients to enjoy the "colour, splendour and challenge" of the El Camino as though they were with them on the trek.

"Our renal patients come in for six hours, three times a week for dialysis, so this takes them away from the clinical space and allows them to experience something else, an opportunity to say 'Wow, these people did this for us,' " she said.

"This make the staff happy as well, seeing patients being given something else, something new and helpful, other than their clinical needs."

The hospital's general manager, Tobi Wilson, said, depending on the results, they may continue to offer VR therapy.

"The VR headsets will offer patients a temporary distraction from their hospital ward and continual thoughts around their illness or pain," he said.

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"This trial activation is a great opportunity for us to ... potentially look at running a more long-term initiative after we gain feedback from the patients and from the overall project."

The technology has been supplied by Samsung, which has also partnered with St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst and Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Camperdown to explore new ways to use VR devices to help patients.

"There's a clinical trial at St Vincent's seeing whether VR technology can be used to manage pain and reduce the need for painkillers under certain circumstances," Samsung's head of alliances, Martin Brown, said.

"Definitely, there’s something that happens to the brain when you use virtual reality in that setting, we’re trying to understand that a little bit more," he said.

"Last year, we ran a similar pilot with Chris O'Brien Lifehouse patients undergoing chemotherapy, a process that leads to high anxiety, and the VR was very successful in being a distraction, it worked very well."

Mr Gough, who was "active and fit" before becoming paralysed, said he saw VR therapy's potential. He's been undergoing rehab for 10 months.

"For me being in a wheelchair, it felt like I was actually doing the walk myself. I was amazed by how clear the picture was and by the feeling that I was actually walking the trail myself," he said.